Glossary

Parliamentary terms are adapted from the official House of Commons glossary. Project-specific data types are identified separately.

Cross the floor: To change political allegiance while holding a seat, by joining another party or sitting as an independent.
Caucus: The parliamentary group made up of members belonging to the same political party; in federal usage it may include the party’s senators.
Independent member: A member who does not sit as part of a recognized party caucus. The archive records becoming independent as an affiliation transition, not as a political party.
Affiliation event: One dated occurrence in which one or more participants change, lose, form, leave, or return to a political affiliation.
Event participant: One individual affiliation change linked to an event. A group event has one participant record for every identified person.
Claim: A discrete statement that can be supported, partly supported, disputed, pending, unsupported, or explicitly unknown, with its own citations.
Research lead: An inherited identity or event row that has not passed the publication gate. It may help discovery but is not a verified historical claim.

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